Rating: 
Summary: Prelude and Postlude
Review: 'Cloud Chamber' is the follow-up novel to his earlier 'A Yellow Raft on Blue Water'. To say follow-up, however, is somewhat misleading. It is actually both a prequel and a sequel to that novel. Whereas in YRBW we are presented with the history of three generations of women in a backwards progression, in 'Cloud Chamber' we begin several generations prior, leading one to speculate (even unto the last quarter of the book) why exactly is one reading this, and what relationship it truly has to YRBW?The patient will be rewarded in her or his reading. We begin in Ireland, with a tale of passion and betrayal (as only the Irish under English-domination could seem to muster). This account, almost unrelated to the rest of the story save as the seed of the action, actually provides an undertow of passion and betrayal felt by the family's succeeding generations. When the young, best-prized son becomes a priest, and then dies tragically in a rather stupid accident, both the mother and the woman-in-love (who marries his brother, ironically, to stay close to him) get angry with the entire world, to no good end. Men, when they figure in the story at all, are usually distant characters, not fully developed, and the full implication is that the literary character is not very developed because the human character is likewise undeveloped. That being said, this is not feminist-philosophy here; as happened so often, women often had a very different psychological and personality development, given cultural mores, and perhaps the view of the men could never be complete given this societal-enforced distance. We come up on Rayona's lineage from the other side this time, through her father, but in this, it is very much the matriarchal line. We learn that, even given strong women of intelligence and passion, the wisps of reality still can make for a struggle for survival. Chronic disease runs through the family; great need (most often unacknowledged) contrasts and conflicts with great strength. The story ends in hope, and renews the hope at the end of YRBW. Rayona has a history and prehistory of tension and passion and difficulty, but also one of love and hopefulness, and this is the conclusion. This is a truly intriguing way of introducing an entire new cultural element into the storyline, and an innovative way of following up a great novel.
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Summary: Engrossing and lovely, but did he have a ghost writer?
Review: Cloud Chamber is a thoroughly enjoyable story, written with the warmth and intelligence that make a Michael Dorris book remarkable, but I wasn't nearly as deeply touched by it as I was by A Yellow Raft In Blue Water. I found myself reading quickly, just to find out what the characters would do next, instead of savoring the sentences as I did when I read and re-read A Yellow Raft. Several scenes in the book - scenes that involved several women of various generations talking or cooking together - were so similar in circumstance and, most especially, in tone to scenes in some of Louise Erdrich's (Mr. Dorris's wife) novels that I was really startled by their resemblance. I'm very curious to know if any other readers noticed this
Rating: 
Summary: Saga tracks four generations of charged relationships
Review: Dorris picks up Rayona, the multi-hyphenated character who began his best selling novel, "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" again in his latest novel. This time, he begins with Rayona's great-grandmother Rose Manion, a beautiful, strong-willed Irish woman who hated one man as much as she desired him and cost him his life. She also ruined the life of the man who loved her. Their tale, and that of their sons, and their half-black grandson, and ultimately, Rayona's make for powerful reading. Dorris is such a skillful writer, that he writes each story in first person, changing to match each character's age, gender and the dialect of the era. Some passages bear frequent rereading. His study of Native American cultures pays off in writing of Rayona and her name-change ceremony. However, the book's flaw is that Dorris gives us too little to like about anyone and we yearn for one character to really identify with. His women are strong and cruel; his men are weak and sometimes unconvincingly devoted to these women. Too often the novelist gives way to scientist, merely tracking the particles in the cloud chamber. All in all it's a good read, however, and his prose is matchless
Rating:
Summary: Saga tracks four generations of charged relationships
Review: Dorris picks up Rayona, the multi-hyphenated character who began his best selling novel, "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" again in his latest novel. This time, he begins with Rayona's great-grandmother Rose Manion, a beautiful, strong-willed Irish woman who hated one man as much as she desired him and cost him his life. She also ruined the life of the man who loved her. Their tale, and that of their sons, and their half-black grandson, and ultimately, Rayona's make for powerful reading. Dorris is such a skillful writer, that he writes each story in first person, changing to match each character's age, gender and the dialect of the era. Some passages bear frequent rereading. His study of Native American cultures pays off in writing of Rayona and her name-change ceremony. However, the book's flaw is that Dorris gives us too little to like about anyone and we yearn for one character to really identify with. His women are strong and cruel; his men are weak and sometimes unconvincingly devoted to these women. Too often the novelist gives way to scientist, merely tracking the particles in the cloud chamber. All in all it's a good read, however, and his prose is matchless
Rating:
Summary: Dorris' final novel is flawed, but ultimately succeeds.
Review: Finishing the final words of this novel broke my heart. Michael Dorris, at the end of this book, had 'pulled it off' and ended a sometimes-substandard book with beautiful prose and images. Rayona, the young girl from the haunting Yellow Raft on Blue Water, is here again and will be okay. I closed the book and looked at the author's picture for a long time, shedding a few tears for a great writer. It would seem that he, too, was deeply flawed, like us all, yet full of humanity and wisdom. I will miss his literary presence.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a chance.
Review: First read Yellow Raft in Blue Water before reading Cloud Chamber.
Do not expect it to be the same. The writing style is excellent, and also very different. Stick with it and the last chapters will make it all worthwhile.
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Summary: Another generational story of betrayal...
Review: I absolutely loved "Yellow Raft in Blue Water". But there were so many questions I had, about Rayona's past, and her future. I liked how "cloud Chamber" looked at Elgin's side of the family. THis book was altogether captivating, though I'm not sure I like the idea of everything going wrong. It upset me a little, actually. Rose Mannion made an interesting character, that I loved, and yet hated at the same time. This story lacked the plot of "Yellow Raft in Blue Water", but it still was an excellent novel.
Rating:
Summary: Delicately written and intricately detailed
Review: I came to this book without connecting it to the story I had read some time ago of the author's suicide. Neither had I read 'Yellow Raft'. As such, my view was relatively free from preconceptions. I liked Cloud Chamber a lot. No doubt, the plot is compelling and nicely paced - if read without demands the book makes a fine, literary plane or train read. Stylistically, I felt the book's structure of rotating tale-telling between the major characters from chapter to chapter provided a neat framework on which to hang a multigenerational novel without it becoming too Michener-like. Dorris covers a lot of ground while being able to give us some fine psychological detail. An intriguing feature of his prose style is that though each separate voice preserves its individuality and distinctiveness, a skilled, unified lyrical tone is preserved throughout. We do not feel that the delicate surface texture becomes awkward or inappropriate in the mouth of even the harsher characters such as Rose. Some of the historical detailing is beautiful, such as the way the women use the Bible as a "fortune-telling" tool, or the treatment of the sisters consumption. I liked Cloud Chamber best for its quiet, unassuming illumination of the sisters interior lives. Dorris does a wonderful job of giving these anxious, devout women real voices without resorting to melodrama or stereotyping. Where its weaknesses are manifest are in the intended unity provided by the "curse" of Rose Mannion, and in the overreaching of including quite so many races to represent the American melting pot. For me, these themes ultimately proved a little clumsy. Overall, though, I can recommend this book as an enjoyable yarn with some lovely portraiture. Read it in a couple of sittings and be entertained - don't expect a profound life lesson.
Rating:
Summary: I'll reread it
Review: I read "A Yellow Raft on Blue Water" on a day when I was home, sick from the fourth grade. I have read it countless times since then. As a writer Cloud Chamber is the kind of book, I hope I will write. I read Cloud Chamber after I heard of Michael's suicide. I do not believe he abused his children. In my heart I wish he was still alive. Trying to do stuff to become happy.
I read Cloud Chamber in one sitting, and I'm sure I will read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I read this book right after I had read A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER. Perhaps I should have waited the 10 years Dorris took to write the sequel. CLOUD CHAMBER is formulaic and bland. The reworking of Elgin's (a minor character in YELLOW RAFT) background to fit this book is dishonest and cheats the reader. My disappointment for this book colored my very positive feelings for YELLOW RAFT, but I was happy to hear Rayona's voice again
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